synth09-instantcity

"It is Orson Welles's The Lady from Shanghai, a movie in which, in spite of the title, China never appears, but is referred to as a distant and mysterious reality - cliches within cliches. At the end of the movie, the images of the main characters are reflected by a myriad of mirrors, making it impossible not only for the spectator, but also for the characters themselves, to distinguish what is reality from what are mere reflections. The observer, after being exposed to so many contrasting realities, cannot help but wonder which, if any, is the ‘real’ China, and how many of the images will be shattered and smashed into pieces by the hard reality of a history still to be written.”